Jon Waldron - my views on the U's

But even at this early stage of the campaign, Colchester United already find themselves in a position in a table where they do not want to be.

Sadly, being situated in and around the relegation zone is something that the U’s are not unfamiliar with, over recent years.

But as U’s boss Joe Dunne rightly remarked after their narrow home defeat against Doncaster Rovers, their third successive league loss, there are still more than 40 league matches remaining.

And it is not as though Colchester have been playing that badly, this season.

Their performances have generally been good.

Indeed, some of the football they have produced has been the most attractive in Dunne’s time in charge and the early-season form of individuals such as George Moncur and Tom Eastman has been highly impressive.

Colchester have looked effective in attack without necessarily getting the rewards for their endeavours (the Doncaster game was the first time they have failed to score in the league this season), while there seems little wrong with the U’s defensive play, either.

That is something that should be encouraging for Colchester supporters, given that full-backs Ben Gordon and Sean Clohessy are new signings and represent half of the back four.

The U’s have shipped seven goals in their opening four league games.

But importantly, the three defeats they have suffered have all been by a slender margin of one goal.

It is a statistic that reflects more than anything the close nature of Colchester’s matches so far and crucially, that they are not far away from getting the results that they desire.

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Nevertheless, it was interesting to see how much the performance against Doncaster divided opinion among U’s fans, judging by their post-match reaction on social media.

While some complimented Dunne and his players for their general play so far and gave them encouragement others were less generous, some even hinting that a relegation battle is inevitable.

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Those who subscribe to the latter might be forgiven for feeling in such a way, given the events of the last two seasons.

But there is still ample time for Colchester to turn things around and start climbing up the table, so long as their results begin to more accurately reflect their performances.

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